20th Dec 2005, 04:55

I traded my 1997 Sintra in earlier this year for a Fiat Doblo and it was one of the best decisions I have made. The electrical faults were becoming so frequent that the Vauxhall Main dealer wanted to charge £100 just for trying to find out what was wrong. It used to do about 15mph around the doors. In contrast my diesel Doblo does 45mph, is cheap and reliable to run and can carry all the stuff that I used to carry in the Sintra. I really liked my Sintra, but the Doblo is better in almost every respect.

1998 Vauxhall Sintra CDi 2.2 from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Eccentric

Faults:

Excellent car for space & comfort, but in my experience, the water pump fragmented and jumped the cambelt off the engine causing £900-00 of damage. Have been told it's a common problem to Sintras & affects Zafiras. Also told that these cars are unusual in that the cambelt drives the water pump. Sintras' engines are crammed into a relatively small space so when the engine needs repairs it takes a long time and costs more. Having said that the Vauxhall service centres are excellent value for money and I would NOT recommend taking these cars to local garages. They usually don't have the necessary knowledge

Battery inaccessible, costly to replace

CV Gators constantly wear out

Have suffered electrical problems.

General Comments:

Super car

Costly to run, costly to maintain

Keep an eye on the cambelt & water pump particularly

Better on long journeys than short ones-massively more economic.

Lovely riding position. Despite the above problems, I still love this car.

14th Sep 2006, 15:49

We found battery very awkward and time consuming to replace. The Sintra has been out of production for a few years, and I think a lot of the batteries are past their best, we bought a new one from a Vauxhall dealer, and it lasted little more than six months, we have have the connectors on the leads changed to accomodate a normal heavy duty battery, much better.

We've read some very negative comments about this car, but we love ours, and with 3 kids, it is a must, and the sliding doors invaluable for getting them in and out, in todays inadequate parking spaces.

28th Sep 2006, 14:38

Battery is tricky, but I have it down to 20 minutes and agree with previous comment, cheapest from Vauxhall. Have had mine converted to run on LPG and get equivalent to 60-65 mpg. Initial cost his high, £2000 but even when towing a large caravan performance doesn't suffer.